


this is the start of how it all ends

by breadrave



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Episode: c05e09 A Crown of Candy: Safe Harbor, Gen, Post Episode 9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24773830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breadrave/pseuds/breadrave
Summary: “Ah, the youngest Rocks,” Ciabatta said, drawing his sword, advancing towards Ruby. “I was wondering if you would find me.”Ruby couldn’t think of anything to say. Her words were failing her, the mantahe killed her he killed her he killed herrepeating endlessly, drowning out any witty retorts she could imagine.(cathartic post ep 9 fic where Ruby gets to kill Ciabatta)
Relationships: Jet Rocks & Ruby Rocks
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	this is the start of how it all ends

**Author's Note:**

> this has big spoilers for episode 9!!! the title is mostly from yellow flicker beat by lorde. i just needed everyone to be sad with me tbh

Ruby Rocks collapsed on the rock candy bridge that led from Dulcington to Castle Candy. She could feel something shift, moments before the locket around her neck went cold and dark, the rest of her body with it. She lost all feeling in her limbs, her legs numb underneath her as she shook. Jet died alone, while she was fleeing. Even as the wound where the watersteel had been plunged into her side continued to bleed, Ruby was unsure if she would ever be able to drag herself from where she sat, too shocked to cry yet.

It felt impossible. It felt like a nightmare, too terrible to be true. But when Liam approached from behind, carrying… carrying Jet, she knew that this was no dream. She looked up at him, the red of Jet’s blood mingling with the pink of his peppermint body.

“Ruby, Jet is… We have to get to the castle, Ciabatta could still be out there,” Liam panted, carrying Jet’s body like a baby, her chest unmoving.

Ruby scrambled up, her hands already moving towards Sourscratch. “Ciabatta was in there? Where is he now?”

“Ruby, no, we have to tell someone, get an adult,” Liam tried, moving across the bridge.

“Did Ciabatta kill her?” Ruby was almost shouting now, the whole world was moving too fast. She can’t look at Liam and the body that he was carrying. She had trusted Ciabatta. Even when he killed a mercenary while they stole Alfredi’s secrets, Ruby had brushed it off, even though Jet was worried. 

“Ruby,” Liam hissed, and what brought her out of her anger was that he was crying. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything else, but she nodded to him, and they set off towards the castle that they don’t yet know is also in danger.

They made their way into the castle through one of the side doors, unwilling to carry the dead princess through the front. The sounds of fighting were not yet loud enough for them to hear. They would have a few more moments of mourning.

“Wait, Liam,” Ruby said, just as they had passed through the doorway, pulling him into a small alcove where they wouldn’t be disturbed. Liam went without resistance, clearly worn out from the battle and the walk. She was as well, but she needed this. 

Ruby finally looked down at Jet’s body. The wound in her midsection was still bleeding, but her face looked the same as always. It hurt more for her to look the same. She reached for the locket around Jet’s neck and unfastened it, looping it around her own neck so that the two lockets connected, making one heart. It felt so deeply wrong.

Liam was crying again, but trying desperately to pretend like he wasn’t. As she was hooking the locket around her neck, he whispered, “She said that you did the right thing. That she loves you. Those were her. Her last words.”

Ruby opened her mouth but couldn’t speak. She could feel everything swirling in her, anger at her own survival instincts, deep fury at Ciabatta, sadness that she hadn’t had the chance to feel yet, and grim resignation to the future. The future where she is an only child.

Out of nowhere, thunderous crashes demolished the quiet intimacy in their alcove. Shouts from the guards all around rang out like bells. Ruby and Liam looked at each other.

This is how the war started.

It started with armies besieging Castle Candy. It started with Ruby and Liam, tucking Jet’s body into a bed so that it would be hidden during the battle, with Ruby locking the door and sliding the key under it, so that nobody would be able to get in without magic. It started with Amethar, unseen, rising from a crater. He fingers the hilt of Payment Day, and is certain who it’s next victim would be. 

Ruby and Liam didn’t mean to split up after making sure that Jet’s body was out of harm’s way. Ruby hadn’t been focusing on where Liam was, her head too full of the image of Jet, looking almost alive laying in the bed where they left her, a smear of blood the only thing that marred the image. Ruby wanted to hold her. She wanted to sit in that empty bedroom in an unused wing of the castle and mourn properly. She wanted to let the battle rage without her. But she tore herself away, leaving Jet _again_ , as she and Liam snuck around, trying to find any ally, since they were too weak to fight. Somewhere in the confusion of soldiers running everywhere, Liam had been lost, and Ruby wandered the castle alone, staying out of sight, looking for her mom, her dad, even Calroy. Any friendly face. 

What she found was Ciabatta. She peeked around a corner and saw him, giving several guards commands to attack any Candians they saw, still dressed like an assassin. Seeing Ciabatta was like poking a new wound. Ruby felt tears threaten to spill, and leaned away, pressing her back into the wall. She knew that her tears were a symptom of the anger that beat like it’s own heart. The Ceresian guards surrounding Ciabatta marched off down the hallway, away from Ruby. She was hurt unsure if she would survive this encounter, but knew that she had to do this. Ciabatta could not walk away.

She peered back around the corner. They were deep in the Castle, battles raging all over the building. Ruby didn’t realize it, but they were only a hallway or two away from the tower where Lapin had tried to teach the two girls about history, spending many hazy afternoons making faces at each other from behind books, linking pinkies under the desks, and whispering to each other about the future. That life was so far away, and neither Lapin nor Jet were here now. She quietly loaded Sourscratch, stepping around the corner and aiming it at Ciabatta, firing before he had the chance to move. 

He staggered back with the hit, but wasn’t down. Ruby quickly loaded again, keeping the bow aimed at Ciabatta’s head. 

“Ah, the youngest Rocks,” Ciabatta said, drawing his sword, advancing towards Ruby. “I was wondering if you would find me.”

Ruby couldn’t think of anything to say. Her words were failing her, the manta _he killed her he killed her he killed her_ repeating endlessly, drowning out any witty retorts she could imagine. 

He was getting closer to her now, Ruby continued backing away, firing once more but the arrow flew over his shoulder. She reached to reload, but as she did, he lunged forward with his sword, swinging with the practice of someone that had earned his power in battle. He was more experienced with melee combat, and sliced through her shoulder, but she dropped, rolling out of the way and firing two quick shots from Sourscratch that landed soundly into his back. He took this in stride, whirling around to face Ruby even as she backed farther away towards the bottom of a flight of stairs, before firing once more, not stopping to see the arrow embed itself in a painting on the wall.

He was strong, quick, and more war hardened that she was, but Ruby was fueled by the mercenary that he had killed like they were nothing. Ruby was fueled by the moment when Plumbeline called out Ciabatta’s name and forced her father into excommunication. Ruby was fueled by chocolate and peppermint splattered on the windows of a cathedral. She was fueled by Jet.

She sprinted up the stairs, finding unnatural speed in the adrenaline. She knew that he would soon get close enough to really do damage, and a bow was useless that close. She stood at the top of the stairs, thinking fast, and grabbed for a small place on her belt, where the water dagger had lain ever since she took it from Keradin. Running a bit farther down the hallway, she raised the dagger, clutching it in her hand, turning to face Ciabatta, who had just finished climbing the stairs. He continued to run at her and Ruby braced herself.

“This is for my sister, you moldy bitch,” she said, and dodged left, out of the way of his sword, slamming the weight of her body behind the knife that killed the Imperator of Ceresia.

He fell to the ground, the bread turning to mush where the watersteel melted him. Ruby stood over him, Sourscratch in one hand, the other putting pressure on her shoulder.

“You...cannot stop the end…the Hungry One must eat,” Ciabatta wheezed, “Candia will fall.”

“Long live the King,” Ruby spat at him, tears falling freely now. 

Ciabatta said nothing more, spluttering as water came out of his mouth, the watersteel making quick work of his organs.

She leaned on the wall of the hallway, sliding down to the floor, unable to handle the shaking that came over her. She cried harder than ever before, Ciabatta’s form blurry. This was the sadness that she had not let herself feel until now. Killing the assassin hadn’t made her feel any better.

It hadn’t brought her twin back. Nothing ever would.

Ruby thought of a day when she and Jet had been children, out on the grounds of the castle, playing war, wrestling and play-fighting Amethar, who pretended to be hurt by their child fists. She wondered where her father was now, if he was winning his battle. 

“Did you know you were killing Jet?” Ruby asked, the tear tracks visible on her face, even though her crying was slowed, “Did you know it was her?”

Ciabatta inhaled like he wanted to speak, but it took him several tries. Finally, “Yes.”

Rage like Ruby had never felt before. She suddenly understood her father, her vision blurring at the edges as she stared at the man that had made her the rightful heir to the Candian throne. Still on the ground, she grabbed an arrow from her quiver, moved to kneel over his body, and plunged the arrow deep into his heart. The watersteel was already killing him, but Ruby wanted to speed up the process.

Before she had wanted him to die alone, but here she sat, watching as life leaves his eyes and the poison eats away at his flesh. She eventually moved away from his body. She felt like throwing up, but settled for closing her eyes, the cold stone floor beneath her reminding her too much of the bridge where the light in her locket died, only an hour ago.

Ruby felt like all of her emotions died with Ciabatta. She felt distantly sad, and will eventually find herself again, but the part of her chest that once housed Jet was hollow, cracking, raw. She held the connected lockets, bringing them up to her lips and kissing them, whispering words of love to Jet.

She was deeply tired, she wanted to rest, to find that bedroom where Jet lay, to kill Ciabatta again and feel something. She didn’t know what she wanted. But she could hear that the sounds of Candian weapons clashing with Ceresian ones had not stopped. 

The war was not over because the Imperator was dead. Ruby Rocks, now the oldest living Rocks sister, turned her back on a murder and went towards the battle, a slight limp in her stride. She went towards her family and her future, alone.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!!! im @aapplebeez on twt and wildsorcerer on tumblr if you want to say hi!


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